Curricular automata and their applications

Computer-assisted learning can be either single-thread or multithread. When learning is single-thread, the learner works with one learning unit at a time; having passed or failed the "current" learning unit, the learner then moves on to the next learning unit. When learning is multithread, several learning threads may be "developing" simultaneously, and the learner switches among (the current learning units of) the learning threads. The learning-path approach is adequate for supporting the development of learning threads on a coarse level of granularity, such as planning the sequences of topics to study. But for learning that occurs on a fine level of granularity, the learning-path approach may not work so well. We introduce the concept of curricular automata, and show how this formalism can be used to support both single-thread learning and multithread learning.